A VERY BIG PIE

Overseas retailers also want a piece of China's vast e-commerce pie. Amazon has warehouses in the Shanghai free trade zone (FTZ) and a store on Tmall in addition to a Chinese site of its own.

American wholesaler Costco has a shop on Tmall, while eBay has teamed up with JD.com to sell imported products. Japan's Rakuten online store has a Chinese-language version and offers payment options with Chinese bank cards and Alibaba's Alipay, China's most widely used online payment service.

"Foreign companies now understand the habits of Chinese consumers are different. Working with a local online retailer lets them sell their products more rapidly, cheaper and, without having to establish a large presence in China, they save a lot of costs," said Canadian Ambassador to China Guy Saint-Jacques, who was there to see the deal with JD.com signed on Thursday.

"We see the future in China's e-commerce," said Arden Schneckenburger of Canada Beef. Canadian beef exported to China is currently sold to restaurants, food services, and stores. "But," said Schneckenburger, "I would say e-commerce will, in the future, take more sales in China."

China's cross-border consumption grew tenfold in the past four years to 20 billion U.S. dollars in 2014, according to a research by eMarketer. Chinese consumers spent 440 billion U.S. dollars online last year, and online sales are expected to hit 1 trillion in 2019, according to research firm Forrester.

China's middle class, on track to soon outnumber the entire population of the United States, have a great appetite for what they perceive as quality products from the United States, Europe and Japan.